Such great information in this episode about dementia which can occur anytime there is inflammation. One revelation is that the brain is NOT sterile as thought. They find gingivitis, herpes and fungus in the brain so evidence is that the nose may be an entry way. Those plaques they find in the brain may be the body's way of sealing off those infections.

Hi cinnamon, they put it online at 6 pm EST in the U.S. so that's about 11 pm for you I guess. I hope they are all as good as this one. I may purchase this one because you get 300 interviews, much more than these highlight episodes.

They seemed to refer to the oral/nasal areas and since lips, teeth and nose seem to be the main targets because of the proximity to the brain but they did compare this to the way syphilis acts in the brain. There are supplements to help rid viruses in your body alz.org

They were exclaiming that they could see these viruses but haven't mentioned calcium but that should be easier I would think. You have to eat greens or certain cheese so I can understand a low K2 especially if you take D without it.

Heloise, thanks for the link. So much information and so intersting. We can see why doctors and even specialists cannot understand what is happening really because of their restricted training.... and always say our test results are "wthn range, normal".

There is so much to do to help ourselves but it's somewhat overwelhming... we cannot do everything suggested by all those doctors... so what to start with is the question... many thanks. x

I think the diet would be a great start. You have to get your body to use fat over sugar. MCT oil is the quickest absorbed oil, it comes from coconut. And then get oxygen to your brain. If you can get your heart rate up three times in a day to get oxygen to the brain. I like the fact you can gain brain cells after all.

Thanks Heloise. I thought coconut oil contain a lot of the bad fat, saturated fats, 82%... which is not great for cholesterol... Do you use coconut oil and if so how do you usr it?I use a lot of cold pressed olive oil (great in salads, but ok for cooking ). I am intersted in trying to energise my mitochondia as have been feeling so exhausted for past 3 years, unable to live a "normal" life, doing ordinary every day tasks in my house, too weak and am only 71! Was very active before. Have rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren's, etc, hypothyroidism. Of course doctors are useless... So if you have a specific regime to recommend/suggest... either on this public forum or by PM me I would apptreciate it. I so very much would like to feel alive this yyear as opposed to feeling am dying slowly and unable to do things I enjoy, even if in a limited way. It would be an improvement on past miserable 3 years.

I know how you feel JGBH but these instructional videos have instilled a lot of hope in me. We have been misled by the medical profession and need to change the mindset. Dr. Atkins had preached this with his diet and so vilified but he was correct. Your body prefers fat as fuel. It is much more efficient than carbs. Carbs create insulin resistance....terrible for the brain. Fat is also more filling. When you make the switch you will be rid of the cravings that carbs produce. I have recommended unfiltered apple cider vinegar before meals makes a real difference. Some people just take coconut oil straight out of the bottle. I sometimes add it to a hot drink but I'm not sure if a lot of it sticks to the cup. You can spread it on gluten free items with cinnamon. Look up a paleo diet or ketogenic diet and get your body to start burning fat. The dangerous fats are vegetable oil.....toxic safflower, canola, corn, etc. Use olive oil or my new love, avocado oil. Your mitochondria uses fats, your brain is 66% fat and cholesterol. Don't worry about cholesterol, it repairs your macula, your adrenals use it to make all the hormones. Try to get your heart rate up three times per day to get oxygen to your brain. These two things should make a difference. If you are taking vitamin C or something which includes bioflavonoids, those are important to your brain.

After you do that you can work on detoxing and there are herbal antibiotics to fight viruses and bacteria. I thought the entry to the brain from the nose and lungs was profound. A nasal spray from the healthfood store is a good idea. I have used them for years because the nasal area can harbor molds and fungi and it has its own microbiome.

After that there are amino acids that help heal the gut but if you eat nourishing foods you will gain more from your food already especially from meat.

Just do what you can, JGBH. Dr. Wahls deteriorated with MS and in seven years ended up in a wheelchair. In one year she was riding her bike for 20 miles (and she is no spring chicken) after restoring her brain which was massively affected by multiple sclerosis. I'm sure you can reverse things yourself because your body has been trying to do this already.

Thany you so much Helise for all the useful guidance and taking the time to post it, am making notes and will try and help myself to recover some kind of health. I have B12 injections 3 times per week, had these for nearly a year now, had to fight for these. Here in UK, docors even specialists - haematologists, which is concerning - are trying to stop me having these! I was losing my balance, yet had been doing tai chi for over a decade,, feeling dizzy, fainting, feeling extreme fatigue, brain fog and tinnitus in both ears and head. It was an horrendous noise in my head, continuous and had this for nearly a year before I had B12, thought I was going mad.... poor concentration, could not feel my toes anymore and they were "frozen" as well as my fingers, neuropathy. As soon as I started B12 the tinnitus in my head stopped and I can now feel my toes and fingerss and they are warm most of the time, plus other improvement, getting balance back, improve cognitive ability, etc. Yet these useless medical professionals still insist on saying there is no evidence that B12 heps!! Fobbing patirnts off all the time.Will need to fight my corner, yet again, to keep the B12 injections...

B12 deficiency must be insidious because lots of MS patients turned out only having B12 deficiency. The tests they normally use apparently are not good enough to find it. Keep the momentum going, your poor brain needs help. Get the blood flow and oxygen up there. Maybe some downward dog. I'm so happy someone else is using this information.

The test for B12 is unreliable; furthermore the UK range is so vvery low, the lowest in Europe I understand.... so many people get very ill and yet are refused the injections, and when you gey them they try to stop prescribe them because there is "no evidence that it works, saying it's a placebo effect" They refuse to accept the evidence of improvement patieents who have B12 injections receive... It feel like they don't want patient s to get better.... In Japan, appareently, anyone with a test below 500 is seen as being B12 deficient and gicen B12 injections and we know the Japanese live long lifes in general. The UK is so behind and all the medics allow this sad situation to cotinue, set in the good old ways! Despair. Take care Heloise.

I started watching this episode because the mom of a close friend of mine has been diagnosed with dementia and not much is being done about it. She has deteriorated rapidly over the last year. (I sent the link to my friends do they can get her the help she needs). Little did I know that while watching, it would turn into so much more.

I watched the entire episode and took so many notes for myself since the information is important for those like me with autoimmunity diseases.

Coincidentally, I have a consult on Tuesday with a functional medicine Doctor. To prepare I have read the books by Dr. Amy Myers and this docuseries has filled in many of the blank spots. I now feel very prepared for the consult and also, confident that I know what to discuss at the appt and what tests to ask for.

It's high time for a "whole body" approach! I know I have gut issues and suspect I also have methylation, toxicity and likely, some sort of rhino-sinul infection. I'm ready to get the proper testing so that a real plan to get me back to who I used to be can be formulated.

Thank you so much for letting me and all of know about this series. Game changer!

You are doing what it takes and I know they have had many success stories which they may tell at the end of the series. You sound very determined so I know you will be one of those success stories. Let us know how it goes.

Methylation has been covered but sulfation was mentioned occasionally before and it is the other system the body uses. I'd like to know more about that.

Sometimes they do rerun these series at the end of all episodes. They may replay them all for a couple of days but no guarantee. You could purchase the series which would include more hours of interviews. I don't know if you could just buy one episode.

Heloise thank you so much for your resume. Unfortunately I nodded off during episode 3 so today decided to purchase the basic package, it didn't go well as the Paypal option wouldn't work and then tried using my credit card. Whilst I've apparently purchased it (card provider not yet showing purchase) I can't log in as it doesn't show a purchase!

So frustrating, have been impressed with the two that I've watched in bite-sized chunks.

I think 3 is the worth the price alone. I just wish I could have caught every little detail. One doctor said that they know Alzheimers starts in the temporal lobe. I hope they discuss more of that. They also went into detail about the mitochondria and how fragile it is and affected by heavy metals. He mentioned getting a screening for the brain just like having a colonoscopy but can't remember the name. Very hard to keep up when they are over an hour long already.

Today's episode sounds very hopeful for autism patients and it can be reversed at least to some extent. The speakers have been excellent so far as well.

If you can't get the information another way, I am happy to share notes that I took. It's pretty long, so maybe once you've had a chance to get the information you need, I can delete it from the forum. It's a bit choppy and probably some errors and typos, but lots of good information in this episode.

Dr. David Perlmutter (neurologist and author of Grain Brain, Brain Maker) spoke of the role of genes as a predisposition, not a determinant. You can cut your risk of Alzheimer’s in half by incorporating daily exercise and not becoming a Type 2 diabetic. There is preventive medicine for the brain. Alzheimer’s drugs don’t really work, may delay entry into a nursing home by 3 months. The way the medical system works is to develop a drug and monetize it, not to get out the word about the benefits of free lifestyle interventions.

Dr. Dale Bredesen, neurologist at UCLA. medicine has not been able to do much for neurodegenerative disease, unlike the strides made against HIV, cancer, etc. One could argue this is the area of greatest biomedical failure. Alzheimer’s has so many inputs it calls for multiple approaches, like the Functional Medicine model. He tells patients it’s like having 36 holes in a roof. Patching one won’t make a difference, you have to patch them all.

Alzheimer = Type 3 diabetes. Insulin resistance starts the brain damage cascade. Eating sugar and refined carbs can cause pre-dementia and dementia. Cutting that out and using healthy oils can reduce risk. People with Type 2 diabetes have a four-fold increase in risk for Alz. Pre-diabetes increases the risk for mild cognitive issues, pre-dementia.

Dr. Perlmutter says some grains are ok, quinoa (not a grain) and non-GMO corn. Glyphosate (Roundup) threatens the human microbiome and the soil microbiome. WHO has called it a probable human carcinogen. He cites Jeffrey Bland, dean of Functional Medicine, who says the foods we eat are changing the expression of our DNA. Food is information and signals our DNA. Sugar overwhelms the system. 200 years ago we developed the technology to produce great amounts. It fuels inflammation. We lowered fat in favor of sugar which led to an increase in disease. Fat has been exonerated, even saturated fat.

Dr. Titus Chiu, TheModernBrain.com, early warning signs are forgetfulness, slower thoughts/reaction time, problem balancing. Changes in the brain begin decades before onset of disease. Be conscious of changes. Cognitive decline can be improved and even reversed.

Dr. Bredesen - we didn’t evolve to eat lots of simple carbs and we are awash in them. Link between leaky gut and Alzheimer’s. Leaky gut plays a role in chronic inflammation, which is pro-Alzheimer’s. NF Kappa B activation affects genes that cleave (…) fragments of bacteria that end up in brain at site of amyloid plaques.

Dr Hyman - the role of the environment, heavy metals not taught in medical school, so there are few tools to treat. The human capacity for recovery is incredible. Most toxins are neurotoxins. Identify and eliminate toxins. Detoxing can improve Parkinson’s symptoms. What we see as “aging” is abnormal aging. Many genes interact and with the environment to influence our predisposition. Our genes are a loaded gun, but we don’t have to pull the trigger. Epigenetics. Even if we are predisposed, we are not destined to develop a disease. Change your environment to reduce your toxic load. You influence your genes with every bite of food, every thought. You can boost your ability to detoxify by turning off the wrong genes and turning on the right ones. Give them everything they need to boost the ability to detoxify - vitamins, nutrients, phytonutrients… eating 2 cups of kale or cabbage will supercharge your detox system.

Joe Pizzorno (The Toxin Solution) discussed his heavy metals detox protocol. IVs are faster, but there are side effects. DMSA - 250 mg every third night, 2.5 grams of fiber/day PGX, divided twice a day to absorb toxins and 500 mg N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) to increase glutathione. It can take a while, with one patient it took 1-1/2 years to detox heavy metals, but she showed dramatic improvement. You have to remove the toxins, then replace the damaged enzymes, then repair the damage.

Rudy Tanzi, Harvard neurologist. What is causing amyloid production? Amyloid is a starchlike protein that is deposited in organs and tissues in various diseases. It has to be ‘seeded’ in the brain. Familial early onset Alzheimer’s is rare, 1-2% of cases, genetic cause of the seeding. In the other cases, pathogenic microbes, bacteria, yeast, viruses may be doing the seeding and the plaque is forming to protect the brain against these insults. Dr. Hyman said this is medical heresy. The received wisdom is that the brain is sterile and protected by the blood brain barrier (BBB). But in this new research, the brain is not sterile. We see bacteria, yeast, viruses. In Alzheimer’s we see more of certain viruses in the brain. Doctors used to believe the brain didn’t have a lymphatic system. The integrity of the BBB lowers as we age, is influenced by our gut micro biome. You can modify your risk before you get the disease. 20 years before symptoms appear the brain is degenerating. Public health concern. Currently 1 in 5 dollars of Medicare/Medicaid in the US goes to Alzheimer’s treatment. Projected to be 3 of 5.

Dr. Perlmutter spoke about diet and brain health. High fat diet ---> 44% lower risk for dementia. High carb diet ---> 86% increase for dementia. (Mayo Clinic Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease) CoQ10 and NAC are beneficial. There is a dramatic correlation of blood sugar and dementia. Optimal blood sugar is 85-90 and there is an increased risk of dementia at 105. HbA1c should be about 5.3-5.4. He suggests looking at paleo/ketogenic diet, spend part of the day in ketosis, 1-2 Tbsp/day of MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides). Exercise every day, vigorous cardio, resistance and core. Exercise has disease modifying ability, cites a study on rats who exercise resulting in improved hippocampus function, long-term memory and learning. Can do low and slow - walking is medicine - and HIIT. There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, but it is a preventable disease. Exercise, vitamin D, restrict sugar.

Exercise increases growth factors, hippocampus (memory) and pre-frontal cortex (focus). There are physiological changes in the brain from exercise. A study in rats demonstrated that exercise stimulates new brain cells in the hippocampus. Strong evidence that exercise has disease-modifying ability. HIIT (high intensity interval training) sends message to your genome to adapt and grow stronger.

Dr. Dale Bredesen (The End of Alzheimer’s) advocates getting a ‘cognoscopy’, blood work, genetic tests (e.g., ApoE4), imaging if symptomatic. to identify your risk and cognitive function so you can create a program to protect your brain health. Bredesen Protocol. Alzheimer’s should be rare.

Dr. Tanzi - A clinical trial showing meditation leads to dramatic changes. Learning to meditate influenced the genes for inflammation. In expert meditators there was a 40% increase in telomerase.

We’re a social species. Isolation is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s. Look at social factors, community, and stress reduction, too. Meditation is better than a vacation. Look at *who* you are connected to. Depression in women doubles the risk of Alzheimer’s. In men it quadruples the risk. The quality of your thoughts really matters. Sleep is crucial. The brain has a custodial function, cleaning up, at night. Sleep apnea increases risk of Alz. Decrease blue light at night for higher quality sleep. (can wear red glasses or use night settings on computer) Look at biomarkers for inflammation, infection (e.g., herpes, Lyme), mould biotoxin illness.

Dr. Bredesen spoke about ’nose brain’ - rhino-sinul microbiome. Neuropathologists have said Alzheimer’s ‘looks’ like it comes from the nose. But what is the agent? We don’t know the trigger. The model is neurosyphylis. The agent sets up chronic inflammation.

However, in Alzheimer’s, the amyloid is a protective response to different insults.

— chronic infection, inflammation. brains of Alz patients show organisms from the mouth (p. gingivalis) and lip: HSV1 (herpes simplex virus 1). various fungi and mould living in the sinus. the rhino-sinul microbiome is important to our health. Biofilms, MARCoNS (multiple antibiotic resistant coagulase negative staphylococci that lives deep in the nasal passages - see survivingmold.com). Optimise rhinosinul microbiome like we do the gut microbiome.

Dr. Hyman - Toxins are excreted by liver detoxification. Two phases of detoxification in the liver are dependent on enzymes. The effectiveness of the enzymes you produce depends on genes that have the code for that type of enzyme, so some are better detoxers than others. We can detoxify substances that weren’t around when we evolved. Free radicals from toxins lead to oxidative stress, damage mitochondria, produce inflammation. Antioxidants are anti-inflammatory. Maximize the body’s ability to detox.

Dr. Terry Wahls, who has MS and dramatically improved her health through diet, supplements, nerve stimulation. Mitochondria are at the heart of neurodegenerative disease.

Many autoimmune therapies are problematic, there’s a hidden cost to the therapy. Immune suppressors don’t help mitochondrial function. MS drugs turn off acute lesions, but may not help the underlying cause of disease.

The episode ended on a note of encouragement and a message of empowerment. Use preventive measures. Empowerment is having knowledge to make change. Don’t wait for a cure. Take action to prevent.

I'm so sorry about your brothers Heloise, and sorry they were not able to benefit from treatment breakthroughs. I have to belive more of those are coming and that the treatment of neurodegenerative disease and autoimmune disease (among others) will be very different, even in a generation.

Reading Heloise's (love the name) reply, below -- my husband was recently diagnosed with a type of Parkinson's, but is in denial. Unfortunately, he is addicted to sugar, and seems less than interested in changing his diet/lifestyle. He has refused the medication and I support him on that, which is why I started trying to find another way to heal him, and came across this series. However, he isn't keen to watch them.

I have decided to focus on myself, try to optimise my own health and lifestyle and try to stop getting upset with him. It's such a frightening diagnosis, I can't understand why he is turning away from these new discoveries -- he got bored listening to the talk on anxiety and depression and walked away. I can't help him if he doesn't want to help himself.

Sorry to vent on this forum. Maybe I need to see a counsellor to help me get over my anger?

You've obviously been trying to be a supportive partner, but I think you're very smart to realise that you have to look after yourself, as well. Denial is probably not uncommon. A nurse once told me denial is common in Parkinson's patients (we were chatting about a mutual acquaintance who was not accepting his diagnosis). Maybe denial is psychologically protective and perhaps with a little time, he'll be able to accept the devastating news and be more open to exploring treatment options and the information you are trying to share. There must be online resources, and I hope you are able to take advantage of them, not only for medical information, but for support, as well. If speaking with a counsellor would help you, why not? Whether professional or through an online group, it's so important to have support and resources.

The theme of epigenetics runs through this series. For anyone interested in this topic, methylation, MTHFR, etc., there's another series starting today. I can't vouch for its quality as I don't know much about Ben Lynch. If you're interested you can check out his website or mthfr.net.